I am an insurance broker. Throw shit at me if you must, I get it all the time.
In insurance, there is a basic tenet known as “utmost good faith”. This basically means that we operate under the assumption that people aren’t lying to us, and we aren’t fucking them over. I don’t work on commission; and anyway, I’m not that kind of person.
On Tuesday, I had a client come into my office to get insurance on a vehicle he purchased. With him was a 22 or 23 year old male friend, who shall be referred to slimy little buddy. They sat in my office and spoke Cree to one another, thinking that I couldn’t understand. I’m not fucking stupid, I read body language, I know when someone is lying to me. I asked this client FOUR TIMES if there would be any other drivers of the vehicle, and each time he said ‘No’. I thought that was false information. I told him at the time that if there is a loss (claim, accident) while someone other than himself is driving, the insurance company is within their rights to deny coverage and he’d be left high and dry.
So. This morning when I came into the office, there was a message on my voice mail from the Didsbury RCMP. (Didsbury is a small town near here.) The officer asked me to call him, there had been a single vehicle accident and the driver had been arrested for impaired driving, and the two passengers were both highly intoxicated. The owner of the vehicle was nowhere around. The owner? My lying client, of course. The driver? Slimy little buddy.
So, a resounding FUCK YOU to lying bastards like yourself. Regardless of my warnings, you have allowed your slimy little buddy to drive your new vehicle, which you just paid cash for. You will now have NO coverage on this vehicle, and will sue because you’re that kind of guy. I will have to go to court and disguise my obvious hatred of impaired drivers and people who are less than honest. Fuck you for making me hate you. Fuck you for making me hate my job. FUCK YOU for letting your slimy little buddy drive your fucking truck and endanger the lives of untold number of people on the highways and his passengers. FUCK YOU, Kevin. FUCK YOU TO DEATH.
I was in insurance claims for four years, and I can tell you I have heard a range of lies from little white lies to big whoppers. Don’t take it personally through. Many consumers have the attitude that insurance companies represent “the establishment” and regale in the fact they have stuck it to them.
It is a shame you company isn’t paying out on the claim though. Because if it did, it would have a strong case to prosecute this idiot for fraud and he would spend some serious time in jail. Of course you can’t prosecute for fraud if your company doesn’t pay up. So he is free to get another policy from another company and continue this cycle.
Where’s the fraud here? The insurance company has not lost any money due to the owner’s lies. Essentially, the insurance company offered him one of two contracts. He could either:
a. pay a little more and have the car insured for whoever is driving it. If the car is in a wreck, the insurance will cover it, so long as the driver is licensed, or
b. pay a little less and have the car insured only if the owner is driving it. The contract states that if someone else is driving the car and the car gets into an accident, the insurance company is not required under the contract to pay the damages.
In the US, it would only be fraud if he had lied about something that would have made you not give him insurance, or a different type of insurance. It would be fraud if he lied about his driving record, or whether he had a valid license. It is not fraud to purchase one type of insurance only covering one driver in the car, and then let someone else drive it.
The owner lied, which sucks. He made a poor choice by letting his friend drive the car, which is not a crime. He made a stupid choice by letting his friend drive drunk, which may be a crime in Canada, I don’t know. It can be in the US under certain circumstances.
He may well sue your insurance company, which will probably cause problems for you, unfortunately. But the company won’t have to pay the claim. That’s what insurance companies do, is not pay claims (insert winkie here)
There is not really a fraud issue here.
If it makes you feel any better, the guy and his slimy friend are both more screwed than you or the company are.
Slimy little buddy doesn’t have a drivers license.
Slimy little buddy is most definitely impaired.
The insurance company will NOT pay out for this. I had an almost identical instance of this while I lived in the NWT, with the same insurance company on risk. They absolutely refused payment, and the insured was cancelled for material change in risk. Being cancelled by an insurance company for any reason bascially screws you for getting insurance on anything other than substandard (Facility) markets for up to three years.
Things differ here, it’s Canadian law that is called into play. I am not allowed to counter-sue a client, according to the insurance act.
The thing that makes me the most upset is that he lied to me. Very few things ruffle my feathers. One is being lied to, the other is having my integrity called into doubt. Fucker.
forget about it Ginger! dont take it so personal. i know how you feel, my wife and i are paid to be lied to, also. (i do credit and she is in insurance)
best revenge is knowing these 2 unhinged moldy ferret shits are WAY screwed! have a laugh over a beer at thier expense!
Hmmm, I’ve actually had the opposite experience - I used to get lied to by insurance agents. It doesn’t happen so much now that I’m older, but back when I was 18 through 21 or so, I had a heck of a time getting a real quote from an insurance agent. I had a fairly new car, and the insurance was quite high. The first time I shopped around for a better price, I found one agent who quoted me a much lower price than anyone else. I went with him, and gave him a check. Several months later, I found out that he had misrepresented my age as 29 instead of 19 on the insurance form, thus giving me a much better price. I was NOT into that - I knew damn well that if I was in an accident, the insurance company could use this misinformation as a reason not to pay.
The other thing they’d do is the “bait and pull” method - quote me something really low on the phone, then when I went in to sign on it, they’d go “Oh! I had your (age wrong/year of car wrong/something else wrong) and your REAL price is $300 more than I quoted you on the phone!” I think they must get a lot of people who just go “I’m here, I’ll just take whatever price it is…”
Ginger, you can rant all you want!!! I’ve never worked in insurance but I have worked in food service, and folks lie there too, saying the food is bad(after eating 3/4’s of it) and trying to get a refund. Luckily, ones like that are not common. So fume, rant, and vent to your hearts content.
Ginger, up until 3 months ago, I was a Product Manager for a non-standard auto insurance company. Having lying, piece of shit, no-good insureds is just par for the course. Don’t let’em get you down.
Well, look at it this way, Ginger: by lying to you, this guy totally fucked himsef. You went ahead and signed this asshole and he gets to reap what he’s sewn. Tough shit, little man. Not only that, but “slimy little buddy” is probably gonna get sued by Kevin.
<cackle> Sorry, thinksnow, I truly could not resist. Ginger, you are such a straight shooter that Robin Hood himself woulda hired you in his Band of Merry People !!! These guys made the very very very VERY fucking HUUUUGE mistake of thinking you’re a rube.
Ahhh, my lethal friend. Go forth and eviscerate these pus-buckets. I piss on their ashes !!!
tommy, the guy is regular market. He had an existing policy. I had him sign a document that states he will be the only driver of the insured vehicles. This will not come anywhere near to touching my E&O. I’m very very good at covering my ass and taking detailed notes.
thinks, get your tight little post-surgery ass back into bed!
Cartooniverse, I don’t think I’ll eat for a week after reading ‘eviscerate these pus-buckets’. Thank you from the bottom of my two-sizes smaller ass.
Well, it’s everywhere. There’s, like, 5 % of the public who are just icorrigible assholes, and they go to restaurants, they buy insurance (if the state forces them to), they go through life looking for someone to take advantage of.
It’s not about you. But somehow they always seem to ruin your day.
Laugh at them.
“You’re dead. You’re all dead.” – Frank Sinatra
Here in Australia it wouldn’t matter what he said when he was insured. No insurer will pay if you are in an accident while intoxicated, whether you are the insured, or some other driver.
Are insurance companies in Canada required to pay for damage caused by drunk drivers?
One time an insurance company gave me a really good quote, then later found out they accidentally listed me as married on the forms and it would be quite a bit more than what I was quoted.
Abe, I’m not sure what you mean by “certain circumstances”. It’s always a crime to drive drunk in the US. Do you mean there are some circumstances where the car’s owner would be liable for someone else D’ing his car WI, and others where he would not?
[sub]I see you changed your sig. Hope I didn’t offend you.[/sub]
Generally, I am not responsible for any damages if I loan you my car and you then get drunk and hit somebody. After I give you my car, I am not responsible for your subsequent act of driving while intoxicated.
However, if you are obviously intoxicated and I give you the keys to my car to drive home, I could be responsible for damages if you run over somebody. It’s called “negligent entrustment.” It’s when any reasonable person would have known that you were too drunk to drive and it would be dangerous to give you my keys.
Offended about the sig, heck no. (It took me a minute to even figure out what you were talking about) I was just psyched to see that someone else had heard of The Young Ones
Rick: What should you do to cross a box junction?
Vampire posing as a driving instructor from Johannesburg: First you should look both ways, then ease into the intersection and RIP A VIRGIN’S THROAT OUT!! ARRRRGGH!!
Rick: I knew it! I knew you were a vampire all along1)
